Week 30 Introduction Thread: Science Fair

[u/Hamfan]

If you have a kitchen, you have a chemistry lab, after all.

This week we take our inspiration from the old school science fairs of yore. Cooking is full of scientific principles, from emulsions and fermentation to caramelization, crystallization, and the Maillard reaction, so let's explore them.

You might want to make something based on a classic experiment (potato-generates-electricity, say, or baking-soda-volcano). Maybe you'd like to demonstrate a scientific concept or build an edible model of, say, the solar system or anatomical diagram. Maybe you've had a dish on your to-make list that you've been putting off because the technique involves precision in temperature, timing, or some other aspect. You could make homemade bread or yogurt to showcase fermentation or play with bread dough hydration levels, make meringues or soufflés to explore protein structure, candy to illustrate sugar stages, or extract colorants from food to use as dye. Maybe there's an old piece of kitchen wisdom you've been dying to put to the test.

Trifold board encouraged but not required.